352 



Canadian Forestry Journal, January, ipi6. 



Managing A Forest Reserve 



A Description of the Varied Problems Confronted in Saskatchewan 

 How the Reserves Help Their Neighborhoods. 



By Everett H. Roberts, 

 Acting District Inspector of Forest Reserves, Prince Albert, Sask. 



Saskatchewan is the keystone 

 province of the West and to the 

 casual observer this signifies a 

 wheat producing country with vast 

 expanses of treeless prairie and to 

 any traveller who crosses her fertile 

 lands on any of the three main lines 

 of railway, his deductions would not 

 be far wrong if he had only to de- 

 pend on what he sees from the ob- 

 servation platform. But let his vis- 

 ion expand in this western atnios- 

 phere and enquire more fully into 

 the matter and he will find that at 

 present only about one-third of the 

 total land area of this province is 

 open country and treeless, except 

 along the river banks perchance a 

 few scrubs may be found. Roughly 

 speaking, another one-third is for- 

 ested area which fosters the next 

 greatest industry of the province 

 outside of wheat raising, namely, as 

 you proceed northward mixed farm- 

 ing, cattle raising and the timber 

 business. The remaining third is for 

 the most part waste land at the north 

 of the province which runs through 

 miles of muskeg and lake country 

 into the barren. 



The central third or forested por- 

 tion is that to which I wish to give 

 most of my attention, as at the pre- 

 sent time it is undergoing the most 

 rapid development. This area, 

 roughly speaking, lies north of the 

 main line of the Canadian Northern 

 Railway and south of the Churchill 

 River and contains most of the 



larger Forest Reserves in the Prov- 

 ince. A very small percentage of 

 this area is really adapted for agri- 

 culture and the government has 

 withdrawn vast areas of this portion 

 and put it into Forest Reserves with 

 the object of preventing ignorant 

 settlers from taking up worthless 

 land which might give them a couple 

 of crops after considerable expense 

 in clearing it up, and further to pro- 

 tect what remaining bodies of mer- 

 chantable timber have escaped the 

 devastating fires that have swept 

 this north country for centuries. 

 Much of this land now contains 

 thousands of acres of young vigor- 

 ous forest growth which with pro- 

 tection will in time furnish the peo- 

 ple of the province with lumber and 

 fuel, when the present virgin stands 

 have disappeared. 



Fifteen Forest Reserves. 

 The government by a very wise 

 policy has set aside for forest pur- 

 poses fifteen Forest Reserves with 

 a total area of approximately six 

 million acres. These are divided 

 into two classes, those in the north 

 country which are essentially forest 

 land, and those on the prairie which 

 are usually sand hills or badly 

 broken grazing country. It is the 

 intention to eventually plant up 

 these prairie reserves and thus aid 

 in retaining moisture and affording 

 shelter; and further, to provide some 

 fuel and fence posts for the settlers. 

 These areas are practically barren 



